DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Don't be a prisoner to the Euro judges

David Cameron was yesterday again on the offensive against the European Court of Human Rights

David Cameron – who once claimed that
the idea of Strasbourg granting prisoners the vote made him physically
sick – was yesterday again on the offensive against the European Court
of Human Rights.

He gave
the impression of being ready to defy the court’s recent judgment that
whole-life sentences for Britain’s worst killers are unlawful, saying
‘there are some people who commit such dreadful crimes that... life
should mean life’.

At the
same time, his ministers let it be known that they are considering
introducing new US-style ‘100-year sentences for murderers’.

Yet
strip away the spin and the disturbing truth is the Coalition is
actually on the verge of surrendering to Strasbourg on the vital
principle of who runs Britain’s justice system.

Hundred-year
sentences might sound tough but, in order to appease the unelected euro
judges, criminals will be entitled to regular reviews that could lead
to even serial killers being released back on to Britain’s streets.

Meanwhile
whole-life tariffs – a fundamental part of our legal system since the
abolition of the death penalty – would be abolished in a craven
capitulation to a remote foreign court.

As
with prisoner votes, on which Mr Cameron is still seeking a compromise
with Strasbourg, at stake is nothing less than the question of who runs
Britain.

Are we still a
democratic and sovereign nation, whose elected representatives decide
our laws? Or are we to be subject to the arbitrary whim of a court of
ill-qualified foreign judges, over whom we have no say whatever?

Mr Cameron must understand he will be judged on his actions, not disingenuous PR bluster.

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Yesterday
ex-shadow health secretary Liam Fox tried to instigate a sensible
debate on whether ring-fencing the NHS’s £2billion-a-week budget remains
the best use of public funds.

The
former GP said, rightly, that successive governments had ‘tested to
destruction’ the idea that money was the answer to the NHS’s problems
and the focus should be on improving treatment.

Immediately,
an hysterical Labour Party – whose GP contracts and obsession with
targets inflicted such harm on the NHS – said Dr Fox’s comments on
funding showed why ‘the Tories can’t be trusted’.

But
as Care Quality Commission chairman David Prior warned last month, it
is treating the NHS as a ‘national religion’ – above even constructive
criticism – that allowed the likes of the horrific Mid-Staffs hospital
scandal to happen.

The NHS continues to be staffed by thousands of selflessly dedicated doctors and nurses.

But
by trying to silence all discussion on whether a monolithic service run
entirely by the State is the best way of meeting Britain’s increasingly
complex healthcare needs, the Labour Party does NHS staff and patients a
terrible disservice.

Little sympathyOn
Monday, barristers are threatening to halt criminal trials across the
country by going on strike over plans to cut 30 per cent from the
bloated £2billion-a-year legal aid budget.

The
Criminal Bar Association says that, once their fees are cut, many
lawyers won’t be able to afford to work and ‘it will be impossible to
prosecute serious criminals or defend the innocent.’

Of course, access to justice is vital.

But
with new figures showing that 1,000 criminal lawyers were paid more
than £100,000 by the taxpayer last year, they might discover that, in
these straitened times, public sympathy for their plight is very hard to
find indeed.